


A Chance of Absolution

by asweetdeception



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Clarke travels back in time to the Ark, F/M, Pining, Post S3, The Ark Station, Time Travel, clarke gets a redo, the world ended again, wells is alive jake is alive aurora is alive
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2020-04-06
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:14:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23514499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asweetdeception/pseuds/asweetdeception
Summary: ALIE's warnings were correct, but her calculations were not. Clarke watches her world burn around her as she tries and fails to undo destiny. But when a dying promise to a loved one reignites her will to live, Clarke turns to Becca and the Flame as a last ditch effort to survive. What she doesn't know or expect is that destiny would throw her back amongst familiar faces before they were ever familiar to her. Now, Clarke must find a way to keep history from repeating itself. But can she really defy destiny?
Relationships: Bellamy Blake/Clarke Griffin
Comments: 8
Kudos: 61





	A Chance of Absolution

**Author's Note:**

> Time Travel AU!!! Because I'm an absolute hoe for them. I started writing this in like 2016 after s3 ended I think but then abandoned it. I came across it to day and was randomly inspired to continue it so here we go.
> 
> This is set after s3 finale and is canon divergent from there on out. :)

_ I feel the sun on my face. I see trees all around me, the scent of wildflowers on a breeze. It’s so beautiful.  _

_ It  _ **_was_ ** _ so beautiful.  _

_ The ground-- that was the dream. The last salvation of humankind. The light at the end of the tunnel. But then reality hit. _

_ And reality  _ **_sucks_ ** _. _

* * *

There were screams all around her. Cries for help, cries of agony, cries of despair. 

Pain and despair and a longing for salvation from the burning ruins of the world. History was repeating itself and this time it did not plan to leave survivors.

It had been two months since ALIE had sounded the warning of the second apocalypse in Clarke Griffin’s ears. Two months since the storm had ended and the chaos ensued. Two months since Clarke had vowed to figure it out, to save the world, to stop the impending doom. They had believed then that they had close to six months to deal with the threat of a global nuclear meltdown. 

They had been wrong.

Whether ALIE’s calculations had been off or something in the environment had accelerated the meltdown, Clarke did not know. All she knew was that the dwindling time they had left had been snatched suddenly from their trembling hands as the nuclear meltdowns began. The world she had painted on her cell walls, the beautiful dream she had opened her eyes to at the door of the dropship, was turning to dust before her very eyes. The beautiful trees, the waterfalls, the glowing forests. All turned into a fiery cloud of smoke as the radiation levels rose, taking everything in their stead. 

She had been one of the lucky few who did not yet have accelerated levels of radiation poisoning. Or were they the unlucky ones? 

Clarke was in the sick bay at Arkadia, tending to the sick, frantically putting in her last ditch efforts to save someone. Anyone. But to no avail.

She had lost everyone. One after the other. She had felt their lives slip through her fingers as she had tried desperately to hold on to them like a terrified child lost in a dark world. Abby, Kane, Raven, Jasper, Monty, Harper, Miller. Even Octavia. Gone. All of them lost to the poison of the air.

All except for one. 

But even Bellamy was only barely alive as Clarke tried to give him some of the only clean water left to drink with trembling hands. There were lesions on his skin and blood had started leaking from different parts of his face. Clarke knew it was only a matter of time before she lost him too, but she would not let herself think of that. She couldn’t. Not him. 

“Clarke, stop. Save it for yourself. You’re going to need it to survive,” he croaked through strained breaths, trying to turn his head away from the bottle.

“No, you have to drink! You need to stay hydrated!” Tears streamed down her face as she caressed his forehead, running her fingers through his hair.

“Clarke.” He reached out to squeeze her hand. “I don’t have much time. You have to save yourself.”

“No!” She grabbed his hand tightly, violent sobs rolling through her. 

“You don’t have the symptoms yet. You can still save yourself. Go to the caves or the Mount Weather ruins. Board yourself up somewhere. Just get away from here.”

Clarke stared at him with terrified eyes, unable to talk or even think. She wrapped his hand in both of hers, wishing that maybe if she held him tight enough, he wouldn’t go away. 

“I can’t do this without you,” she finally broke down, burying her head in his neck.

“Yes, you can.” His hands touched her face tenderly and held it up to where he could see her. “I believe in you.”

“We were supposed to do this together...we were supposed to have more time!”

“We  _ will _ do it together. I’ll be with you,” he gave her a strained smile. “Just promise me you’ll save yourself.”

“Bellamy,” she cried out as his grip loosened on her face. “Please don’t leave me!” 

But it was already too late. His eyes had shuttered close and his hands had fallen to his side lifelessly.

Clarke would have screamed if she could. She would have cried. But all she could manage was the endless stream of tears down her face as she felt herself die slowly in silent sobs. She couldn’t breath. She felt as if her heart was being torn apart from the inside, unable to contain the losses it had suffered, the grief it had endured.

She lay there holding his body for an immeasurable amount of time, pleading it to come back to life, but to no avail. His dying words echoed in her head.  _ Promise me you’ll save yourself. _ But she didn’t know how. They had run through every scenario. Nothing had worked. If the radiation had gotten to everyone else, how was she to survive it? And even if by some miracle she did, what would she do afterwards? 

_ I should’ve listened to her. I should have let ALIE save us. _ More sobs rolled through her, the guilt of her decision eating away at her.  _ If she was here, they would still be alive. _

And with that something clicked in her head. 

Becca.

Becca was still here, or her consciousness at least. Clarke had brought the Flame back with her on her way back from Polis since no night-bloods were left to take it. Under the threat of the new apocalypse, she had locked the Flame away and never thought about it again. Maybe she could try asking Becca for help. See if there was anything to be done. She no longer had the borrowed dark blood to support the Flame, but at this point, did it really matter? If the Flame didn’t kill her, the radiation still would. If the radiation didn’t kill her, the lack of food and fresh water would.

Clarke finally peeled herself off of Bellamy’s lifeless body. She gave him one final tearfilled glance and leaned down to kiss his radiation-burned forehead. Then, she took in a deep breath to steel herself and turned away from him. She would give him his proper burial later. But first, she had to keep her promise to him. She had to find a way to survive.

She went back to her office, the same office she had spent countless hours trying to solve their impossible dilemma with Bellamy. She glanced over at the couch she had once watched him sleep peacefully in and more tears streamed down her face. He couldn’t be gone. It couldn’t be that final. In all the times she had feared for his life, her heart had always known he would come back to her. Because leaving her forever just didn’t make sense. How could he be gone? They were supposed to be together. Always. That was their pact. How could the fates so cruelly take him from her and leave her behind? How could they make her watch the life leave his body? Hadn’t she suffered enough? Couldn’t she have just this one thing? 

Sobs rolled through her body. She found herself falling to the ground, frozen in disbelief. He was gone. She was alone. There was no Bellamy left to take her into his arms and tell her there was still hope. The last breaths had left his body and taken all her hope with them. She hugged her knees and buried her face into them. She thought of all the times she had taken him for granted. All the times she had just expected him to be there without being grateful for his presence, for the peace he brought to her. His freckled face and his lopsided smile. His soft curls. The way his eyes scrunched up in the rare times he let himself give into a full smile.

She had taken it all for granted because it just felt so natural. Sometime between landing in the dropship and being unlikely leaders together, they had become so bonded that he just felt like an extension of her, and she his. They were two sides of the same coin, joined at the heart. The idea of him ever not being there had never felt real to her. 

Oh, how wrong she had been.

Clarke let out a heavy breath as dried tears of pain, regret, and guilt painted the canvas of her face. She sniffled and forced herself up from the floor. 

She turned to the desk on her right side and opened the drawer. There, buried deep under useless clutter, she found the hidden Flame. She didn’t know what she meant to do with it. It’s not like she even properly remembered the procedure. She raised the metal chip to her lips and whispered to it.

“Becca, please help me.” 

It sounded like a prayer more than a request. She raised the Flame to the back of her neck and whispered the activation code.

“Ascende superius.”

For a moment nothing seemed to happen.

Then, she felt the spider-like legs of the chip unfold and crawl on her neck, pricking her skin. Thoughts left her mind completely as the excruciating pain deafened her to her own screams. She was dying. She was sure of it. 

And death was a welcome relief, if a painful one. For the last time, her mind flashed with images of all her loved ones. People she missed so dearly. People she couldn’t wait to reunite with. Bellamy, Abby, her father, Wells. Octavia and Raven. Jasper, Monty, and Nathan. She thought of them fondly and whispered to the vast nothingness around her. 

“Take me home. Take me to them. Take me back to happiness.”

And just like that, the lights went out and everything ceased to exist around her.

And then, she felt like she was being pulled out from a dark, bottomless tunnel. Upward to light. To heaven? Did heaven even exist? Did she deserve it?

When light started pooling around her eyes, she found her other senses awakening. There was a low mechanical whirring around her. The smell of stale air and metal. Everything felt cold and hard to the touch. There were voices. Voices? Were there other people here?

After a few moments of confusion, Clarke forced her eyes open. She was in a storage room of some sort. Everything was blue and grey and cold. But it looked so familiar.

Why did this place look just like the Ark? She found herself asking once more: was she in heaven?

Suddenly, the door to her right swung open and a guard cadet walked. 

His face looked so young. His eyes, though still burdened, looked light and happy. There were no lines of frowns embedded into his forehead. There was a peace in his face.

He took a step closer, examining her in concern.

“Ms. Griffin, are you okay?”

Clarke just laid there, frozen in shock, unable to form a sentence or even a proper thought.

“Bellamy?” 


End file.
